Friday, February 8, 2008

Hair Transplantation

By: Cynthia Jones

Hair transplantation is one of the most popular baldness treatments. It is the surgical procedure meant for permanent hair loss correction.

Various Hair Transplantation Methods

You have various hair transplantation options offering baldness treatments. Two chief choices that you have are
a.) Scalp Flap Surgery and
b.) Scalp Reduction Surgery.

a.) Scalp Flap Surgery


In scalp flap surgery a skin flap and underlying tissues are moved from one scalp area to the other. The surgeon first cuts out a section of the scalp that lacks hair growth. Then he replaces it by a flap of hair-bearing scalp. The size and placement of the flap will be decided on the basis of your requirement. The operation scar will be covered by the relocated hair.

The objective of scalp flap surgery is to correct a non-traumatic cosmetic defect. Its other use is repairing a traumatic injury site and restoring its functionality and cosmetic appearance.

Repairing a skin defect resulting from congenital malformation is another is another use of this hair transplantation process.

Advantages of Scalp Flap Surgery –

The advantages of this scalp flap surgery include natural frontal hairline, proper hair placemen in temporal areas, hair pattern distortion avoidance, etc.

Side effects –

Apart from its advantages, the scalp flap surgery also has certain side effects. Hair transplantation through this process causes permanent hair loss at donor sites. The other outcomes include scarring at donor or recipient sites, blood supply failure to the flap, etc.


b.) Scalp Reduction Surgery


This hair transplantation technique is usually aimed at people with posterior baldness. It removes bald scalp and brings the half-bearing scalp closer to it, to fill in the bald area in the scalp. In this surgical technique, the surgeon will reduce your baldness by cutting out a segment of your bald scalp skin.

The hair transplantation process in scalp reduction surgery is divided into two parts. In the first part, the bald portion of the scalp is surgically removed. In the second part, the hair-bearing scalp is upwardly stretched to replace the removed bald scalp.

You might require the scalp reduction surgery to be conducted in combination with another surgical method - brow lifting. The latter’s objective is o remove the frown lines from the forehead and crow’s feet from around the eyes.

In your case the brow lifting can be carried out through scalp extension or scalp expansion device. This technique causes the hair-bearing scalp skin to be stretched causing better coverage to bald areas of the scalp.

The possible complications and side effects

The possible complications and side effects of scalp reduction surgery include scarring at the suture lines, scalp skin "œstretch back" at the excised bald area and central midline scar called slot deformity.


c.) Follicular hair transplants


Follicular hair transplants are known for their dependability and popularity. It is one of the baldness treatments with an increasing popularity.

In follicular hair transplants a graft is constituted of one follicular unit as it exists in nature.

What are follicular units?

Follicular units can be described as hair bundles growing together. Every unit is formed of about 1-4 terminal hair follicles. In case the problem arises from a genetic factor, healthy hair gets replaced by hair with smaller diameter and length.

A follicular unit contains 1-2 fine vellus hairs, oil glands, a small muscle and a collagen band surrounding the unit.

A follicular unit represents the skin's hair bearing structure. Its role is to ensure maximum growth of the hair.

The basic concept of follicular hair transplants says that a follicular unit is a physiological unit, and not a histological one.

The advantages of this technique

The advantages of this hair transplantation process include natural looking hair, more effective surgery thanks to stereoscopic microscopes for dissection, damage avoidance to the follicular unit, etc.

The disadvantage of the process

One disadvantage of the process is that it is a time consuming one.

Direct Hair Implant (DHI) – DHI is the minimally invasive hair transplantation technique for follicular hair transplants. The process is devoid from the use of scalpel, stitches and a donor strip.

DHI is based on the transportation process called Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).

FUE is conducted through the use of custom-made, precise micro-surgical tools. It witnesses direct extraction of follicular units one by one, instead of dissection.

Advantage of FUE

A crucial advantage of FUR is the quality control possibility during the hair transplantation procedure. Moreover, the procedure is simple and painless.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

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